Stop Going to Church!

Pat Steeves · Tidal Church Moncton · March 27, 2022 · All In series

Pat Steeves explores Psalm 92, Jeremiah 17 and Jesus' parable of the four soils in Matthew 13, inviting listeners to move from simply attending church to being planted in it through community, small groups and serving, so they can flourish in every season.

More from Pat Steeves · The All In series

Topics: Faith, Relationships, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:14] My daughter came back from her hockey game, and so I wanted to do a quick check-in. Like, how did it go? And she's like, my coach said something really bad on the bench today. And I'm thinking, oh no, did he yell at you? Like, was he yelling at the ref? And she's like, no, he told us one of those bad jokes that you tell us. And I'm like, oh come on, like, what was it? And she's like, he said, why is the number six scared of the number seven? And I'm like, that's easy, because seven, eight, nine. And she's like, yeah, that is so bad, Dad.

[1:01] So listen, I can't guarantee that my jokes will be funny or stories will be that engaging, but I do wanna make a promise to you that if you will apply what we learn here today, I believe that today could mark a moment that God does something very special in your life. That is not an overstatement, but if you will apply what we go over this morning, I believe today could mark a moment that you will look back on and say, God did something special. Can you believe that? That He could actually do that right here today. I wanna start with a story as we begin in today's topic. But recently I was at the Moncton Wildcats hockey game over at the Avenir Centre, and I was standing in line, all right, here's just a fun fact, here's a tip.

[1:56] If you ever go to an event at the Avenir Centre, there's only two places you can eat that you don't need to mortgage your house to be able to feed your family. All right, and that's Goji's and Tim Hortons. So I'm standing in the Goji's line and just kinda minding my own business, and I see somebody kinda coming kinda in my direction, and they're looking at me with a big smile, and they're like, they're looking at me, and they're like, I go to your church. And I'm just kinda looking around, like, is he talking to me, right? So I just kinda, and as he gets closer, he says it again, he says, I go to your church. And I'm like, oh, that's amazing, like, I go there too. And I said, so what's your name? And he's like, my name is Ethan. And Ethan, like, tell me, like, how long have you been going to this church?

[2:42] And he's like, I've been going here for five years. I'm like, oh, that's incredible. So like, what small group are you a part of? And he's like, you know, kinda the excitement is kinda coming down off of his face. And he's like, well, to be honest, I don't really go often, I go like special occasions, and you know, I try to watch when I remember online. And kind of in that moment, the conversation took a twist where he said, actually, he's like, I've been going through a really hard time, and I lost my job, and I'm just really just kinda starting fresh from my life. And Ethan asked me if I would pray for him. And I said, you know what, I will be praying for you.

[3:27] And I kinda left that conversation with this thought. I realized one thing in that moment, that Ethan needs to stop going to church, and he needs to become planted in the church. You see, I believe that God's highest purpose for our life is not just to go to church, but it is to become planted in the church. And so today, I wanna talk to you on the topic of why you should stop going to church. So right now, look at the person beside you and say, stop going to church.

[4:13] In the chat right now, all caps in bold, say, stop going to church, stop going to church. And so I want us to look right now, because I think the reality is, the reality is that we've probably come through the last two years, and we're probably not flourishing, we're probably not doing as well as we once were, or what we would like to be. And so one of the realities is that when we are planted, and some of you that are like green thumbs and gardeners, you would understand that when you are planted, the result is that you will flourish. And so I want us to look at this term flourish, and we're gonna look at some Scripture today and kinda get dirty as we dig in on this, but the word flourish means this.

[5:07] It means to grow, to thrive, to prosper, and to multiply. And you're like, what does that mean? Why does that matter? Well, let's just put this into context. How many of you would like your bank account to flourish? To grow, to thrive, to prosper, or to multiply? I know that flourish, again, isn't a term that we necessarily use in today's culture, but I think it's a very good imagery of what is the result when we become planted. Now, how many of us would like to flourish maybe in our marriage or in our other relationships or in our career? The reality is when we become planted, the result is we will flourish.

[6:01] And as I referenced before, I think we're coming through a period of time over the last couple years that we could probably say that we are not flourishing in all areas of our life. Actually, we might even go as far as to admit that maybe we are feeling spiritually numb, that we are feeling depleted in our life. Maybe we would say that we are not flourishing. And so I want us to look in Scripture today at what Scripture has to say as to how we can become planted and how we can flourish. All right, so let's look here at Psalm 92.

[6:48] If you would, maybe you have your phone, you can flip that open, or maybe you have your Bible. I see some people here have that. But let's look at Psalm 92:12-14. It says this. It says, the righteous will flourish like palm trees. They will grow like the cedars of Lebanon. They are like trees planted in the house of the Lord that flourish in the temple of our God, that still bear fruit in old age. Can I get an amen right there? And always are green and strong. I want us to just park here and leave this Scripture up just for a moment.

[7:37] There is so much in this Scripture as we look at the reality of being planted and the result of flourishing. And I want us to check out this verse here. And again, one of the benefits that I love about being able to speak is I get to look at Scripture and think about it all week long. And just kind of like everything throughout my day, I'm just thinking about this. And this Scripture here, this word righteous, is an easy word for us just to kind of skim over. But it says, the righteous will flourish. Who are the righteous? Have we ever thought about that word? Do you know that righteous means those who are in right standing with God? Sometimes we think of righteousness as self- righteousness, which puts a lot of the effort and focus on us where we try to be good or try to earn God's approval.

[8:34] But God has made us right through Jesus. And that is so important for us to understand, that you as a follower of Jesus have been made right. So we have access to all that God has for us. And so I just wanted to highlight that word righteous is so powerful for us to understand that word. They will flourish like palm trees. Now, I don't know about you. We're gonna put a picture up here of a palm tree. But when I see a palm tree, I almost get jealous. I'm like, I don't wanna see a palm tree, right? Where it's sunny and warm. I'm like, you know, no, right? But here's what's fascinating about a palm tree.

[9:20] Did you know that a palm tree can withstand winds of up to 145 miles an hour? Now, for those of you that drive a Ford vehicle, you'll never know what that feels like to go that fast. All right, but it is actually very, very fast. But here's, truthfully, one thing that I learned this week about a palm tree. Did you know that a palm tree, the more storms it's exposed to, the stronger it gets? The more it blows around, it begins to strengthen it from the inside and from the roots down. And it actually gets stronger, the more storms it goes through.

[10:06] And so, as I think about this Scripture, when I think about this Scripture, the righteous will flourish. I don't think it's a mistake that Scripture has a palm tree in that text. Because I believe that when we are planted, when we're flourishing, we can go through storms and actually come out stronger than before. How many people want that to be their experience, the next pandemic that we go through? Come on. That we are stronger than before. It says that, if we go back to this text, it says that you will grow like the trees of Lebanon. Again, I did a big Google search on trees of Lebanon, cedar trees.

[10:52] These things grow 130 feet tall. All right, their roots go down 150 feet wide and 100 feet down. I don't think that, again, when they wrote this Scripture, they just picked those out as just, oh, we'll put these trees in here. But their roots go deep. What are we talking about today? I am challenging us that it is important for us to be planted. Let's go back to this text. I just wanna show one other thing. They are like trees planted in the house of the Lord. We're talking about not just going to church, but becoming planted. And we're gonna talk about how we can actually do that.

[11:38] That flourish in the temple of our God. I love this. That still bear fruit, all jokes aside. That still bear fruit in old age. I think that when we become planted in the house of God, no matter what age we are at, no matter what stage of life we are in, it is God's design that we will continue to flourish. What does that mean? Flourish in our relationships. Flourish in our relationship with God. Flourish in our community. I believe that that's what God's best is, but it requires us to be planted. To be planted. Now listen, I just want us to just look at what Jesus has to say in Scripture.

[12:27] Because Jesus talks a whole lot about how we can become planted. And so we're gonna look at Matthew. Matthew 13:2. And I want us to look at this story. And we're just gonna kinda park here. We're gonna kinda get our hands dirty, so to speak, as we kinda dig into this reality of what it means to be planted. And Jesus shares four different types of soil in this story, all right? What I love about Jesus is, how many of you guys know a really good storyteller? Like you know somebody that when they begin to tell a story, you just sit down and go along for the ride.

[13:13] This is what Jesus was, and He always used illustrations for the time that He was in. And so He begins this story here, where He says, He talked about parables, and He begins to say, a farmer went out to sow some seed. And so again, back then in the culture, that's very applicable to where they were at. And so He begins to go on, next verse, and He says this. As the farmer was scattering seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on the rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

[14:01] But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Now He says other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked out the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop of 100, 60, or 30 times more than it was sown. So He tells this story, and you can go ahead and read it in Matthew 13 this week. But it's almost like when He finished telling this, they were almost annoyed with Him. They're like, "What are you even talking about? What does this have to do with anything?" And so you can see the exchange that they have, and then He continues on, I believe in verse 18, and He's like, "I'm gonna tell you what this means."

[14:52] And so as we go through this, I want you to think about where do you think you fit in in this story. I believe that Jesus is speaking to each and every one of us that are listening online or in the room, and He sums us up and puts us in one of four different types of soil. And so let's have a look at this. He says, "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown on the path."

[15:40] When I read that story, and I read what Jesus is saying here, He's saying, when you don't understand, I don't know if you've ever shared maybe your faith journey with somebody, or maybe you're here in the room this morning and you still don't understand. What is this whole Jesus thing all about? We hear the message, we hear what is being said, but we don't understand it. I think that we've all been there before. And Jesus says, here's what happens. The evil one comes, and one verse says, it immediately snatches what was sown in their heart. This is the seed that was sown on the path.

[16:28] I don't know if you can just picture with me for a moment, but when you think of a path and seed being scattered on it, it's very hard, is it not? It's beaten down. There's no room for what? The seed to take root. Somebody hasn't put the work in it to understand. They're just like, "No, I don't believe that. That doesn't make sense to me." And they just move on by. And the seed can't take root. And immediately the enemy comes to steal away that seed. I want us to look at the second illustration that He gives. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word, I love this, I love this, receives the word at once and receives it with joy, with excitement.

[17:21] But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. I don't know if you can relate with this or not, but have you ever just heard something, maybe in a sermon or a message, a church service like this, and you hear something and you're just like, "Oh my gosh, that's incredible, this truth, this teaching," and you're sharing the podcast and you're so excited, right? I think we've all experienced that. But this verse goes on to say they receive it with joy, but they have no root. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

[18:12] The seed is falling on rocky ground. Here's what I gather when I read this. Again, I'm not much of a farmer, okay? But I know enough to know that farmers, before they go to plant, they spend some time picking out the rocks. They're picking those things out that are preventing what? The seed from taking root. And this scripture here, what I'm seeing is there's sometimes some rocks in our life when trouble comes. It causes us, some of those rocks are of doubt. God, why is this happening?

[18:57] God, where are You? Rocks of discouragement, right? There are rocks in our life of trouble and persecution. Maybe for some of you, the rock in your life is, "I don't wanna be a Jesus follower because what are people gonna think? I'm kinda respected in the community, people kinda look up to me, and if they know that, like, I'm going to church and I'm passionate about Jesus, like, I don't know if I want that." That is a rock that is in our life that is doing what? It's preventing the seed of God's word to get into our heart, to be able to grow something, something that the world can't offer.

[19:42] Are you guys with me this morning? What is the rock in your life that is preventing the seed of God's word from getting in? And remember, we're talking about being planted in the house of God. What is it that's preventing it from you? Let's go to the next illustration. This one, He really hits home. "The seed falling among thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word, making it unfruitful."

[20:28] When I read this, I picture a field or a garden or a flower bed taken over by weeds, by thorns. When you see that, you go to your neighbors or you drive down the street and you see that, what does it remind you of? It's like, "Oh, somebody's been kind of busy, haven't they?" Or even better, when it's our own flower bed and we have company over and you have to just kind of take the walk of shame and be like, Oh, sorry, I've been so busy, I haven't been able to weed my garden, right? Why? Because we're so caught up in everything else. And I wanna tell you, it's so easy for us to get caught up in the worries of life more so than ever, is it not?

[21:18] You just go open up your news app and the price of gas or food shortage or war or pandemic, the worries of the world begin to take over. And so we begin to react and respond and we get busy and we forget to take care of ourself. Another big one is the deceitfulness of riches, where we chase riches and greed. And what we don't realize is it is preventing the seeds of God, the Word of God, from getting down into our life to take root, right? To take root. God wants us to flourish.

[22:04] And last example Jesus shows us here is, "But seed that fell on good ground refers to someone who hears the Word, they understand it. This is the one who produces a crop yielding 100 or 30 times more than was sown." And again, I'm just kind of belaboring this a little bit, but I can remember growing up and someone in our community just had this incredible garden that was like the envy of the whole community. But I would see him out there working it day after day and preparing it. And that's when the seed falls on good ground. And so I wanna challenge us here this morning that if we wanna flourish, if we wanna become the person that God's called us to be, it's gonna take some work, right?

[22:57] We're gonna have to deal with some of the rocks. We're gonna have to deal with some of the weeds in our life so that the Word of God can take deep root in our life. I wanna give two examples of two people. Person A and Person B. Person A decides that he's going to show up at Moncton Wesleyan Church on a Sunday morning. And so Person A comes into the parking lot. He's greeted by an incredible parking team that's just smiling and good-looking, and they're like, "Oh, this is incredible." They walk through the doors and they go to our cafe and they have a coffee and a pastry and they're blown away by the first impressions. And then they walk in the celebration center and they hear the first song and they're like, "Oh my goodness, this is incredible," right?

[23:47] And the second or third song just kinda hits them and they've just never felt this feeling before. And then Pastor Joel comes up and does what he always does. He just speaks a message and just knocks it out of the park, right, and this person is just like, "Oh my gosh, I have found what's missing in my life." And so in that moment, they surrender their life to Jesus. But what Person A does not do is they don't start to form relationships and they don't get involved in what's going on and kind of emotionally engaged into the church, but they just are going to church. And after a little while, the marriage starts to break down and kids are getting in trouble and they're starting to question, "Why does this even matter?

[24:42] This doesn't work," because they are just going to church. Person B, same experience, same coffee, same song, same message, but Person B gets planted in the church. They start meeting people and they get into small groups and problems still come up into their life and they're dealing with some big things and some failures and some setbacks. But Person B has people around them that are supporting them and encouraging them and they continue to go through those difficult times and Person B is able to then just continue to give and continue to serve and continue to flourish here in the church.

[25:38] Person A and Person B. It's a challenge of, are we going to open ourselves up and allow God to do a work in us? Are we gonna be vulnerable and put ourselves out there so that we can begin to flourish? I want us to go to our last verse of Scripture here found in Jeremiah. Before we go there, there's two types of pain that we will both experience: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Two pains. The pain of discipline is short term, but we have a long term gain on that.

[26:26] Regret is short term pleasure but long term regret. The pain of discipline is difficult, but this is, I believe, the start of what we need to do as Christians to be able to get planted and to flourish. Let's go to our last verse here found in Jeremiah. Again, we're talking about planting and flourishing. "They are like trees planted along the riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried about the long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit."

[27:12] Here's the reality. If we were to be real honest, there are some seasons in our life that are gonna be some extreme heat. It's not gonna be comfortable. And you may be going through this right now where you don't know where everything is gonna actually play out. Or maybe for you it's a season of drought where you just feel disconnected from life. You feel disconnected from God. You're just kind of numb to everything. I wanna give you hope today that when we become planted in the church, when we become planted in our relationship with God, and I'm gonna close with telling you how you can do that.

[27:57] So don't worry. But when we do that, we can endure the heat. We can endure the drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit. I don't know about you, But that's what I want from my life, that no matter what happens, no matter what I go through, that I can continually keep producing fruit. When we talk about fruit, what exactly are we talking about, right? And Scripture in Galatians is very clear when it talks about what are the fruits, what do we reap when we are planted? It talks about love, joy, peace, patience.

[28:44] I believe as Christians, as believers, that there should be love inside of us that causes us to help others. There should be a joy that is on the inside of us that is just so contagious. There should be a peace inside of us that is so attractive. I don't know about you, but I don't see too many people when I go about my day that are so full of just joy, that are full of peace. And I believe that as Christians, what I'm challenging us today is, is when we plant ourselves here in the church that we will have this byproduct that we can give to others.

[29:35] I believe that it's not about us, it's about what we can give to those around us. And so as I close today, as we've just gone through two years of a lot of online church, a lot of challenges, we're launching this three week series called All In. And it's my prayer that over these next three weeks, God would begin speaking to you in a real personal way and challenging you and challenging me to look at the areas in our lives that we've let slip, where we've allowed some things to kind of grow up, or maybe we've allowed some things to kind of make us hard, because I believe that we have the biggest opportunity than ever before to be able to bring light and love and hope and peace to our city, to our community and to our neighborhood, but it requires us to be planted.

[30:41] And so as I close, I wanna leave you with just a couple of options if you're saying, you know what, I wanna become planted. Where do I start? What do I do? First of all, I wanna invite you, even today we have an event just after this service right here in the atrium called Next. Next is for people that are trying to figure out what is the next step? What, how can I help in the church? It's an excellent event that you can start with and meet some pastors and try to discover what is next for you to be planted. But here's what you gotta know. You gotta know that we've registered, we've purchased enough food for the people who've registered, but here's the deal. I asked them to get certain amount of seats, 20 seats extra in case you wanna go today.

[31:33] And so nobody just start running out here, all right? But if you wanna join Next, we do have a small amount of room for some extra people, but we do run Next each and every month. And so that could be a first step. Maybe for you, it is joining a small group. I gotta be honest and say, I'm part of a small group that meets at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday mornings. All right, I don't know if the small group leader is here, but I do not like going to small group. I don't. But you know what? I need to be in small group.

[32:20] Why? Because I need to be planted with some other people that wanna be planted. And we learn from each other and we grow together and we support one another. It's that discipline that we talked about. But maybe that's your next step is to join a small group. Or maybe your step is to be able to serve here in the church or in the community. Those are three ways that you can begin to take that step to become planted. Could I just have everybody just bow your heads and just close your eyes here? And I just wanna ask this question. I'm not asking you to make any commitments or anything like that.

[33:06] But if you would just maybe be honest with yourself to just say today, say, you know what, God? I gotta be honest. It's time for me to get planted. It's time for me to get serious and start working on myself and discover what it is that's maybe blocking me from being all in. If that's you, would you just slip up your hand again? I'm not gonna ask you to commit to anything. But you're just saying, you know what? That's just speaking to me today. Is I need to be all in. Maybe you're watching online today and God's speaking to you. But I wanna challenge you to go back and read Matthew 13.

[33:55] And ask God to show you, God, where am I in these four categories, God? Maybe you're here today and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus. And you're saying, today is the day that I wanna surrender my life. What does that mean? Surrender kind of my pride. Surrender myself saying, I've tried to make this work on my own and I've made a mess of my life. And you've tried everything maybe. But you're saying, you know what? I wanna surrender my life to Jesus. If that's you, would you raise your hand in this room today and just say, you know what? I wanna surrender my life to Jesus.

[34:50] Thank You, God. Let me just pray for us. Thank you for those that were honest enough to raise your hand. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day. God, I believe that today as I opened up, God, in a couple of my early statements that today could be the moment, could be the day that You began something really special in our life that we would look back to. God, not my words, God, but like the Scripture, God, Your Word that was sown today, God, I pray that it would take root in somebody's life, that as we leave here, that Word would just keep speaking to us, instructing, leading, and guiding our thoughts, our decisions, so that we could become planted and so that we could flourish in life, not for ourselves, but for our community, for our neighborhoods, for our workplace.

[36:06] God, I just pray that as a church, God, individually, we would realize that You have placed a seed of greatness on the inside of us that is bigger than we could ever imagine, but I pray that we would not allow it to go dormant, God, but we would put the work in to develop it. God, that we could see our community come to Jesus, that we could see a movement of God that maybe we've never seen in a long, long time, but God, it starts with us. So we thank You for this. In Jesus' name we pray. Everybody said amen.